The New York Yankees have clinched a spot in the 2024 MLB playoffs.  As of this writing they have a 5-game lead on Baltimore for the division and their magic number is down to 6.  I am still not sure winning the division is the way to go (taking a week off is a killer in baseball) but, even if they were to be swept by the O’s next week, they pretty much have the division rapped up.  So, let’s head down to Yankee land and see how we got here.

The Yankees have turned things around in the last month of the season.  They have won 6 of their last 7 and 9 of their last 12 games.  The biggest reason for this has been the resurgence of their pitching staff.   If you take out Cole’s debacle in Boston, the Yankees have given up 22 runs in their last 12 games.  Obviously, that’s less than 2 runs per game.  If that keeps up, the Bronx Bombers will go deep into the playoffs. 

The pitching resurgence has come due to the bullpen getting it’s act together again.  Literally and figuratively.  The literally got guys back.  Ian Hamilton has been great since his return to the active roster.  In his 4.1 innings since coming off the IL he has given up 0 runs and struck out 8 guys.  Marcus Strowman has also been moved to the pen where he has had one outing in which he picked up a save pitching 3 innings of 1 run ball on the back end of a blowout Yankees win.  I was surprised the Yankees actually moved Strowman to the bullpen.  With the way the rest of the starters have been pitching, he was the obvious choice however, with him being a big free agent signing and all I didn’t think the Yanks would take him out of the rotation.  I figured the easiest thing to do was to move one of the young guys and keep the vets happy. With Gil and Schmidt coming back and pitching well (2 runs in 16 innings for Gil and 2 runs in 10.1 innings for Schmidt) they deserved to stay in the rotation and either Strowman or Cortez had to come out.  Nester has out pitched Strowman all season and adds a second lefty to the rotation so he was the best choice to continue as a starter.  I have to give the Yankees credit for making the right decision here. 

But back to the bullpen.  The biggest change to the pen was finally, and I mean finally, taking Holmes out of the closer’s role.  Since being removed he has only given up 2 runs in 6 innings.  Of course, both of those runs resulted in blown saves for Holmes but because it wasn’t the end of the game, the Yankees actually won both games.  I have been saying since the end of last season that he is much better suited as a late inning guy than a closer and so far, as usual, I am being proven right.  With Holmes out, the Yankees have used different guys to close out games.  It seems the guy they trust most is Weaver.  The problem is Weaver can pitch more than one inning in a game.  They seem reluctant to give that up and I don’t blame them.  With him seemingly being back to form, Ian Hamilton might be the best guy for the role.  But then, I think they will stay with the matching up idea they have used so far.  Either way, the bullpen, and I have to mention how good Tim Hill has been (1 run in his last 15.1 innings), has gone back to being as reliable a bullpen as there is in baseball.  In the post season starters are on a short leash, the bullpen will pitch a lot of big innings. Them staying hot will go a long way towards the Yankees reaching their ultimate goal. 

The hitting for the Yankees lately has been a bit weird.  In September they are hitting a measly .228 yet because they have a .317 OBP, 13 homers, and 22 doubles, they have scored 71 runs in the 16 games so far.  That’s 4.4 runs per game.  That would be the middle of the pack for the season.  (on the year the Yanks are 3^rd with 5.0 runs per game).  One of the reasons for the fall off has been the slump that Soto and Judge have been in.  When both of your big guys slump at the same time, the offense is really going to suffer.   Their slump affects everyone else in the lineup. With the two of them no longer getting on base in front of him, Austin Wells has gone into a slump.  In September his is hitting, if you want to call it that, .152.  He is however, still being productive when he gets the chance, as his 11 RBIs in the month, second only to Judge, illustrates. Luckily, both of their slumping sluggers seem to be coming out of it, especially Judge who in his last 6 games is hitting .350 with 10 RBIs.  

The only guy who is hitting well this month, besides Cabrera who has only had 16 ABs, is Gleyber Torres.  Since moving to the lead off spot Gleyber has really turned it around.  His batting average has increased over each of the last three months and he is hitting .338 in September.  It took them almost 4 months but the Yankees have found their leadoff hitter.  At least for the rest of this year. 

The last guy I want to talk about is the Martian.  The fan’s cries (not mine but everyone else’s) were heard and Jasson Dominguez was finally called up to the Majors.  Barring an injury, I do not expect him to be a minor leaguer ever again.  Now I say that even though he has not adjusted quickly to Major League pitching.   He is hitting .174 in his 7 games since being called up.  He seems like he might be coming around.  In the last 7 days he is hitting .188, which is an improvement.  He does have a .381 OBP. Which is impressive when you are hitting .188.  He also hit his first homerun since being called up.  I have faith in the Martian and expect him to start hitting more like he did in the minors.  Who knows, there have been many, many 4A players in the history of MLB.  I think Dominguez is way too talented to be another one. 

Having seemingly turned things around the Yankees look poised to make a run at their 28^th World Series.  Hopefully they can rap up the Division and home field sooner rather than later so they can have a few stress-free games at the end of the season.  They can then focus on getting their hitting back to where it was all season to match their revived pitching.  Then they can take 5 days off and lose their first playoff series like 3 of the 4 teams with byes did last season.  No seriously, it’s a real disadvantage to have to take a week off when your opponent doesn’t.  MLB has to fix this and adding more playoff teams in not, I repeat, NOT the answer.